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Sunday, 27 July 2014

My life as a tapestry - 1 (once upon a time in 1947)

I was inspired by the Bayeux tapestry to start a
tapestry of my own life. (Not literally a tapestry as I can't embroider, but a drawing of
a tapestry).

Where to begin?

The recent death of my Uncle John sent me back to 1947 - the year he
returned from several years abroad in the service of World War II, only to find
that the family home in Romford that he had left was now occupied by strangers.
His father had sold up and gone back to Ireland without telling anyone. A not
uncommon story amongst returning servicepeople after that war I'm told.
1947 was also the year I was born - in a family home that my parents already
shared with my aunt and uncle. I and my cousin Andrew were born about 2 months
apart - I thought of our sister-mums as rather like the Cholmondeley Ladies of the 17th century.
My aunt Eileen coming back from being a nurse in Syria is in the picture too.
As is my Dad, proudly starting his new life in civvy street. And a man clearing
rubble, and a scientist observing something vaguely atomic.
The Latin narrative is completely cod, of course. It says 'a new lifeworld
starts here'.
The sub-text running round the borders is about patriotism, militarism,
industrialisation, and the rather more scarce self-harming luxuries of everyday
life after the greatest man-made disaster the World had ever seen.